Around
4 months, stops making sounds to listen to a caregiver’s
voice, responds differently to angry and friendly voices, and
starts to take turns making sounds with caregivers and is able to
imitate a caregiver’s tone of voice

At
5 months, responds to his or her name

Speaking

Gradually
develops more control over voice

Cries
less and begins to make cooing, laughing, and more speech-like
sounds

Continues
to make “cooing” and “gooing” sounds

Around
4 months, starts to take turns making sounds with caregivers and
is able to imitate a caregiver’s tone of voice

At
5 months, imitates some vowel sounds as well as sounds of a
different pitch, and uses his or her voice to express different
emotions

By
6 months, may have enough lip control to produce lip sounds such
as “p”, “b” and “m”, and may
begin to produce strings of sounds (e.g., “muh-muh-muh”)
which are known as “babbling”

Seven to Nine Months

Listening

Shows
he or she is listening by responding more consistently to what
caregivers say

Retains
the ability to discriminate between sounds used in different
languages but is gradually losing that ability with exposure to
their home language(s)

Becomes
able to break the speech he or she hears down into meaningful
pieces

At
8 months, typically listens more to single words than to full
sentences

By
9 months, may respond to his or her name and “no”,
responds to some caregiver requests

Speaking

Continues
to express different emotions and meanings with the sound of his
or her voice

Around
7 months, begins to “babble” by repeating a single
syllable, such as “ma-ma-ma-ma” to explore his or her
own voice or when playing with objects.

At
8 months, uses babbling in imitation games with caregivers, may
begin babbling strings of different syllables, like “bagidabu”,
and may produce long strings of speech that cannot be understood,
a normal development known as “jargon” speech.

By
9 months, starts to add vocalizations to gestures – such as
saying “ee-ee” when raising arms to be picked up by a
caregiver

Ten to Twelve Months

Listening

Responds
to a wider variety of words including his or her own name and the
word “no”

Can
no longer discriminate between sounds that are not meaningful in
his or her home language(s)

Around
10 months, obeys some commands such as “wave bye-bye”

By
11 months, responds to about 50 words (names of people and
objects and words from games and routines) and to about half of
caregiver requests

At 12 months, continues to
follow simple directions best when a caregiver acts out the
desired response

Speaking

Repeats
single syllables (e.g., buh-buh-buh) and says strings of
different syllables (e.g., ma-ba-da)

May
develop “protowords” or vocalizations that are always
used in the same situations and that sound the same each time
they are produced but do NOT sound like adult words (e.g., saying
“bini” for “blanket”)

Around
10 months, may try to imitate adult vocalizations, but can only
imitate those sounds he or she can produce

By
11 months, can imitate the pitch changes and rhythms of caregiver
speech, as well as facial expressions and is likely able to
produce p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, w, y, s, and h sounds if in an
English-speaking home

At
12 months, can imitate caregiver speech even when he or she
cannot see caregiver and has likely produced his or her first
adult-like word

Twelve to Twenty Four Months

Listening

Understands
more words than he or she can say

Responds
more often and more correctly to a wider variety of words

Speaking

By
12 months, typically says first word

Understand
more words than he or she can say

Begins
using word order as a way to understand longer sentences

Uses
words to introduce and maintain topics and to request
information, predict, describe, and socialize with others

Uses
real words, as well as babbling, jargon, and protowords
throughout second year

Begins
putting two and three words together in short “sentences”

Uses
primarily content words so speech tends to sound like it is
“telegraphic” (e.g., Daddy home)

Uses
more nouns and verbs

Says
mostly one to two syllable words with simple syllable shapes

At 24 months, uses about 70
words

Knowledge of Language and
Conversation Skills

Begins
to understand why different things can have the same label
(e.g., horses, cows, tigers, and dogs can all be called
‘animals’ because they are all members of that
category)

Begins to develop
his or her conversational skills

Learning
that people take turns in conversations

Becoming
increasingly successful at introducing new topics

Learning
that a pause in conversation indicates that it is time to take
their turn

Beginning
to use strategies to repair conversational breakdowns

using
combinations of gestures, imitation, and words to direct the
course of interactions

Learning
to use pauses to understand when it is time to take his or her
turn

Begins
using polite language

Tells
stories that are longer and more complex

At
three, uses between 900 and 700 words

At
3 ½ years old, is able to talk about one topic for more
than two turns

At
four, says majority of consonants and vowels correctly

At five, uses about 5000
words, produces all the basic sentence types in English –
if from an English-speaking home, is learning to produce more
complex sentences through embedding and conjoining, and maintains
topics for an average of five turns

Knowledge of Language and
Conversation Skills

Develops
a better understanding of what information needs to be included
during conversations and of the perspective of listener

Better
able to respond to when communication partners ask them to fix
misunderstandings

Begins using different ways
of speaking when talking to different people (e.g., adults vs.
other children)